Lonnie Johnson (inventor)

Lonnie George Johnson
Johnson in 2016
Born (1949-10-06) October 6, 1949[1]
Mobile, Alabama, United States
Education Williamson High School
Alma mater Tuskegee University
Occupation Engineer, inventor
Years active 1978–present
Known for Super Soaker

Lonnie George Johnson (born October 6, 1949) is an American inventor and engineer who holds more than 120 patents.[2] He is the inventor of the Super Soaker water gun, which has been among the world's bestselling toys every year since its release.[3]

Early life

Johnson's father was a World War II veteran and his mother worked as a nurse's aide and they lived in Mobile, Alabama. As a child, Johnson was very innovative and curious, some of this curiosity coming at the expense of his family's possessions. He reverse engineered his sister's doll to understand how the eyes closed. He also almost burned down his own house while making rocket fuel. In addition, he built his own go-cart out of a lawnmower engine and attached to scraps he found in the junkyard to it.[3] In his teenage years, Johnson attended the all-black Williamson High School in Mobile.[4][5] He drew much of his inspiration from George Washington Carver. In 1968, Johnson represented his high school in the Alabama science fair. He was the only black student in the fair at a time when African Americans did not have much presence in science. He created a robot he named "Linex", which was a compressed-air powered robot and took home first prize.[6] Johnson then went on to attend college at Tuskegee University on a math scholarship.[6] When he finished, he earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an Master's Degree in Nuclear Engineering from Tuskegee University.[3]

Career

Resume

  • 1978–79: "U.S. Air Force Weapons Lab, acting chief of Space Nuclear Power Safety section"[7]
  • 1979–82: "Jet Propulsion Laboratory, senior systems engineer, Galileo Project"[7]
  • 1982–85: "U.S. Air Force, Advanced Space Systems Requirements manager for non-nuclear strategic weapons technology"[7]
  • 1985–87: "U.S. Air Force, Strategic Air Command, chief of data management branch"[7]
  • 1987–91: "Engineer on Mariner Mark ll Spacecraft series for Comet Rendezvous and Saturn Orbiter Probe missions"[7]
  • 1991–: "Johnson Research and Development Co., Inc., founder and president"[7]

After college, Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force, where he worked on the stealth bomber program.[8] Later, he worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab with the nuclear power source for the Galileo mission to Jupiter.[9] More recently, he teamed up with scientists from Tulane University and Tuskegee University to develop a method of transforming heat into electricity with the goal of making green energy more affordable.[9]

Johnson currently has two technology-development companies: Excellatron Solid State, LLC and Johnson Electro-Mechanical Systems (JEMS). They both currently operate in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta.

Excellatron Solid State, LLC is a U.S. -based technology company that focuses on the development and production of solid state batteries, particularly thin film batteries. Its mission is stated as “…to develop revolutionary energy storage technology as well as the manufacturing technology required for its cost effective commercialization.” The company’s batteries boost safety, high temperature capability, long cycle life, thin flexible profiles, unique proprietary passivation barrier and packaging solution, and high rate capability. The company is targeting military applications and implantable medical devices as initial consumers.[10]

JEMS has developed the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System (JTEC), listed by Popular Mechanics as one of the top 10 inventions of 2009. This system has potential applications in solar power plants and ocean thermal power generation. It converts thermal energy to electrical energy using a non-steam process which works by pushing hydrogen ions through two membranes, with claimed advantages over alternative systems.[6] The companies operate a research laboratory in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta.[11]

Johnson is a "part of a small group of African-American inventors whose work accounts for 6 percent of all U.S. patent applications."[12]

Super Soaker

Johnson conceived the Super Soaker while doing work with the US Air Force. On October 14, 1983 he applied for a U.S. patent. On May 27, 1986 he received patent number 4,591,071.[13][7] Initially it was called the “Power Drencher” when it appeared in toy shops in 1990, but after some tweaks and remarketing, it got its name.[6] Selling between $10 to $60 depending on the model, the Super Soaker took off, generating $200 million in sales in 1991.[3] Shortly after making the deal for the Super Soaker with the Larami Corporation, Larami became a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. in February 1995.[14] But being an inventor, Johnson came up with another idea: replacing the water in the Super Soaker with a "toy [Nerf] projectile." In 1996, Johnson received patent US5553598 A[15] for "Pneumatic launcher for a toy projectile and the like."

Johnson discovered he was underpaid royalties for the Super Soaker and several "Nerf line of toys, specifically the N-Strike and Dart Tag brands."[16] In November 2013, Johnson was awarded nearly $73 million in royalties from Hasbro Inc. in arbitration. According to Hasbro, the Super Soaker is approaching sales of $1 billion.

Personal life

Johnson lives with his wife and their four children in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.[3]

References

Inline citations

  1. ↑ Broad, William J. Engineer At Play: Lonnie Johnson -Rocket Scientist, Served Up Soggy, July 31, 2001, The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "Lonnie Johnson". TEDxAtlanta. TED. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Lonnie George Johnson". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ Ward, Logan (November 2010). "Shooting for the Sun". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  5. ↑ Edgar Alvarez (February 27, 2015). "Lonnie Johnson, the rocket scientist and Super Soaker inventor". Engadget. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kremer, William (August 16, 2016). "Lonnie Johnson: The father of the Super Soaker". BBC News. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lonnie G. Johnson 1949–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Summer Inventions: A NASA Engineer Created the Super Soaker?!". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  9. 1 2 Pagan, Kennedy (August 2, 2013). "Who Made That Super Soaker?". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Excellatron – the Company". www.excellatron.com. Retrieved 2017-02-17.
  11. ↑ Wheeler, Candace (July 16, 2015). "Super Soaker Inventor Now Engineers Batteries At Atlanta Lab". WABE. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  12. ↑ Karlin, S. (2002-07-01). "From squirts to hertz [Lonnie Johnson, inventor]". IEEE Spectrum. 39 (7): 46–48. doi:10.1109/MSPEC.2002.1015464. ISSN 0018-9235.
  13. ↑ Lonnie G. Johnson (May 27, 1986). "Patent US4591071 – Squirt gun". Google Patents. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Larami Super Soakers Is Whetting Hasbro Inc.'s Appetite This Is The Third Time The Toy Maker Has Been Sold". philly-archives. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  15. ↑ Johnson, Lonnie G.; Applewhite, John T. (Sep 10, 1996), Pneumatic launcher for a toy projectile and the like, retrieved 2016-10-10
  16. ↑ Seward, Christopher. "Super Soaker creator awarded $72.9M from Hasbro". ajc. Retrieved 2016-10-10.

General references

  • "Lonnie G. Johnson, The SuperSoaker". MIT School of Engineering. September 1998. Archived from the original on May 28, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  • Anderson, Jessica (March 2007). "Yes, You Can Make a Million". Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Archived from the original on March 1, 2007. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  • Jones, Willie D. Jones (March 2008). "Super Soaker Inventor Invents New Thermoelectric Generator". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  • Ward, Logan (October 10, 2008). "Top 10 New World-Changing Innovations of the Year (With Videos!)". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
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